In the midst of the worst recession since the 1930s, consumers credit media advertising with influencing their purchase considerations, according to a study released by Yankelovich and the TVB. The study was unveiled at the Paley Center for Media in New York City before an audience of agency execs.
The study shows overall ad impact depends on the product category and where the consumer is in the purchase funnel, ranging from Awareness to Consideration to Preference to Purchase. The research shows, for example, in the travel category, 87% of consumers report being influenced by media in the Awareness phase of the funnel, while 59% are influenced in the Purchase stage. In the automotive category, on the other hand, 81% report being influenced by media in the Awareness phase, while 41% are influenced in the Purchase stage. The study examined advertising impact on 15 different ad categories.
Said Susan Cuccinello, SVP/Research for TVB: “The purchase funnel has been widely accepted as an important way of looking at how consumers move toward a purchase decision, but up to now very little research existed to determine the impact of advertising. This study breaks new ground and the advertising community has already expressed great interest in seeing our results.”
Yankelovich conducted the survey among US adults between 1/29 and 2/20 to determine the role that TV plays as part of a multi-platform environment for advertising. The goals were to understand the role of television advertising in driving consumer actions throughout the purchase decision process, how television interacts with other media platforms, including new media such as the Internet, and how purchase decisions are made as a result of this interaction, including the role of different media platforms in the purchase cycle.
Two consistently strong contributors in most categories and purchase funnel phases, the study found, are television and the Internet. TVB will be bringing more specific research, drilled down into individual categories, on one-on-one calls on agencies in the coming weeks.
